Soviet attack on Poland in 1939

Many extraordinary pages in the history of the USSR. But a special place is occupied by that chapter, which describes the events of the autumn of 1939, when the Red Army invaded Poland. The opinions of historians and ordinary people were divided into two completely opposite camps. Some argue that the USSR liberated western Ukraine and Belarus from Polish oppression and secured its western borders. And others insist that it was the expansion of the Bolsheviks against the population of these lands, who lived happily and prosperously in the civilized world.

Obviously, these disputes will continue indefinitely. After all, history is complex. Attempts are already being made to reduce the role of the USSR in World War II, which claimed more than 20 million lives in our country. But this is a very recent story. Eyewitnesses of these events are still alive. Yes, it's a complicated story. And interestingly, there are always people who try to take a different look at current events. It doesn't matter if they happened recently or a very long time ago. Suffice it to recall the sensational attempts to whitewash the Mongol-Tatar invasion, which threatened the very existence of Rus'. But these are things of the past.

Let us return to the events of September 1939.

These two opposite opinions about the military operation in the autumn of 1939 will be given below. The reader will have to judge for himself how true they are.

First opinion - the Red Army liberated Western Ukraine and Belarus

A small digression into history

The lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus once belonged to Kievan Rus and were lost during the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Subsequently, they began to belong to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and then to the Commonwealth. Judging by the fact that uprisings periodically broke out in these lands, it is unlikely that life was good under the Poles. In particular, there was strong pressure on the Orthodox population of these lands by the Catholic Church. Bogdan Khmelnytsky's petition to the Russian Tsar for help characterizes very well the situation of Ukrainians under the Polish yoke.

Historians note that the local population was considered "second-class people", and Poland's policy was colonial.

As for recent history, some eyewitness accounts say that after the arrival of the Poles to the lands of Western Ukraine and Belarus in 1920, when they were given to Poland under the Treaty of Brest, the situation in these areas was critical.

Thus, the massacre in the Bobruisk district and the city of Slutsk is mentioned, where the Poles destroyed almost all the central buildings. The population, which sympathized with the Bolsheviks, was subjected to the most severe repressions.

Soldiers who took part in the hostilities were settled on the occupied lands. They were called settlers. According to eyewitnesses, during the offensive of the Red Army, the siegemen preferred to surrender so as not to fall into the hands of their fellow villagers. This also speaks of the great "love" of the local population for the Poles.

So, on September 17, 1939, the Red Army crossed the border of Poland and, almost without resistance, advanced deep into the territory. In the memoirs of eyewitnesses, one can read that the population of these places enthusiastically greeted the Red Army soldiers.

The Soviet Union, thanks to this offensive, increased its territory by 196,000 square meters. kilometers. The population of the country has increased by 13 million people.

Well, now it's the complete opposite.

Red Army - occupiers

Again, according to historians, the inhabitants of Western Ukraine and Belarus lived very well under the Poles. They ate well and dressed well. After the seizure of these territories by the USSR, general “purges” took place, during which a huge number of people were destroyed and exiled to camps. Collective farms were organized on the lands, where the villagers fell into slavery, as they were forbidden to leave their places. In addition, the inhabitants of the western regions could not pass to the eastern territories, since there was an unspoken border, where the Red Army soldiers were on duty, not letting anyone in either direction.

Describes the famine and devastation that came along with the Red Army. People were constantly afraid of reprisals.

Indeed, this is a very vague page of Soviet history. Older people remember that in textbooks this war, if you can call it that, was mentioned like this: “In 1939, the territories of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus were annexed to the Soviet Union.” And that's it!

In fact, Poland, as a state, ceased to exist, as Hitler announced on October 6, 1939, speaking in the Reichstag. The captured territory was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union.

As you can see, the opinions of historians are radically different. But all of them are based on documents of that time and on the testimonies of eyewitnesses of events. It is likely that each person evaluated them differently.

The Great War was less than two years away. But, perhaps, it is worth remembering that the Poles fought bravely against the Nazis during this war on the side of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the Germans formed a whole division "Galitchyna" from the natives of the western regions of Ukraine. And with the remnants of the Bendera gangs, the struggle continued for several more years after the end of the war.

Confusing all the same thing, the story!

Today, the Perm Regional Court sentenced Vladimir Luzgin to a fine of 200,000 rubles for "rehabilitating Nazism." The reason was an article posted by Luzgin on his page on VKontakte. According to the investigation, with which the court agreed, the phrase “communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland, unleashing the Second World War, that is, communism and Nazism honestly cooperated” contradicts the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

But then what about the world-famous supplement to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, which is passed even in high school? We asked historians to evaluate how the fatal phrase from Luzgin's repost contradicts the facts.

Ilya Budraitskis

historian, political theorist

The phrase "communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland" refers to the Soviet-German treaty of 1939 and more precisely to the secret protocols according to which the territory of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was to be divided between Germany and the USSR. The very fact of the existence of these protocols, as well as the responsibility of the Stalinist USSR for the occupation of these countries, was recognized even during perestroika by the Congress of People's Deputies. Since then, despite the huge number of publications and political statements (including by President Putin), which actually deny the aggressive nature of the actions of the Soviet state during this period, and sometimes even the very existence of a secret appendix to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Russian Federation has not officially revised the estimates. issued in 1989.

However, it does not follow from this that the assertion that the USSR is equally responsible for the outbreak of war does not follow from this. In addition, the conclusion of an agreement with Hitler was a sharp reversal of the entire previous political line of the USSR and the Communist International, which since 1935 (the 7th Congress of the Comintern) called for the creation of general democratic Popular Fronts against the fascist threat. The conclusion of the pact looked like a betrayal in the eyes of many European communists and led to a serious crisis in a number of pro-Soviet communist parties (in particular, in the French Communist Party). Evidence of this stunning effect of the pact on the anti-fascist and labor movement in Europe can be found in hundreds of memoirs of its participants, as well as in fiction (for example, in Arthur Koestler's famous novel Blinding Darkness).

Margaret Buber-Neumann, wife of one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Germany, who emigrated to the USSR after Hitler came to power and was repressed in Moscow in 1937, was handed over by the Soviet authorities to the Gestapo in 1940 (after the conclusion of the pact) and then spent years in a women's concentration camp Ravensbrück. Her book of memoirs, The World Revolution and the Stalinist Regime, is a terrible testimony to this unprincipled zigzag of Stalinist foreign policy.

The German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, of course, instantly radically changed the Soviet foreign policy line, and the heroic struggle of the Red Army and the European communists - participants in the anti-fascist resistance made many forget the shameful history of 1939.

The temporary cooperation between Stalin and Hitler, of course, was not of an ideological nature, moreover, on Stalin's part it was not "honest" and was an actual betrayal of communist principles. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was thus an act of a cynical and situational raison d'etat, but did nothing to bring Nazism and communism closer together, which were and remain radical and irreconcilable opponents.

Of course, the statement circulated by Vladimir Luzgin contradicts the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which unequivocally found Germany solely responsible for starting the war. However, the tribunal itself, in which the accusation was presented by four allied countries, was supposed to consolidate the results of the victory over Nazi Germany and establish a general idea of ​​​​the justice of this victory, and not understand the nuances of the history of one’s own indirect responsibility for strengthening Hitler (not only in relation to the Soviet Union). the German Pact of 1939, but also the Munich Agreement of 1938, as a result of which England and France actually came to terms with the German partition of Czechoslovakia).

The verdict of the Perm court is in fact fully consistent with Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code. And the main question must be raised not only in connection with a specific court decision, but with the very possibility of regulating public judgments about history with the help of the Criminal Code.

The text referred to by Luzgin is certainly evaluative, propagandistic and contains significant distortions of facts. However, the same deliberate distortion, only from a different, “patriotic” position, can also be blamed on the popular panegyrics to Stalin that flooded the shelves of Russian bookstores, justifying repressions, deportations and the aggressive foreign policy of the USSR. Thus, at the center of the problem is the very transformation of history into a tool to justify the current policy of power. Such dangerous games with historical politics, the legitimization of the present through a distorted and constantly reconstructed past, are typical not only for Putin's Russia, but also for most countries of Eastern Europe. The primitive drawing of an equal sign between Nazism and communism, which can be found in the text distributed by Luzgin, unfortunately, has become a key figure in the ideology of most post-socialist countries.

History, used as a stupid tool of the ideological hegemony of the elites, is stripped of its dramatic, complex content and turned into a resource for extracting various national versions of the trampled "historical justice" that are in irreconcilable contradiction with each other.

The history of the 20th century shows that it is with the rhetoric of "restoring historical justice", violated by external and internal enemies, that justifications for future wars all too often begin. This is what we should think about in connection with the current sad verdict in Perm.

Sergei Mikhailovich
Solovyov

Associate Professor at Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Editor-in-Chief of the Skepsis Journal

The phrase “communists and Germany jointly attacked Poland, unleashing the Second World War, that is, communism and Nazism honestly cooperated”, of course, is not the truth, but is nothing more than an ideological stamp. It can be divided into several components.

Throughout the 1930s, the USSR tried by diplomatic methods to create a system of collective security in Europe. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs M. M. Litvinov achieved the conclusion in 1935 of agreements on cooperation with Czechoslovakia and France in opposition to Nazi Germany. In 1936-1939, the USSR helped the Spanish Republicans in their fight against the Nazis, led by General Franco. The USSR supplied weapons, military specialists, raw materials for the military industry, and so on. In this civil war, the Spanish fascists enjoyed the full support of their Italian and German associates, Hitler and Mussolini not only helped Franco with the most modern weapons, but also sent a total of about 200 thousand of their soldiers. Without this help, Franco's rebellion against the republican government would have been doomed. England and France also announced a policy of non-interference, which played into the hands of the Nazis.

In September 1938, when Hitler presented territorial claims to Czechoslovakia, the Soviet leadership seriously considered the possibility of a military confrontation with Germany, but Great Britain and France agreed to an agreement with Germany, thereby signing the death sentence of Czechoslovakia. This agreement deservedly went down in history as the Munich Agreement. Even before that, France and England did not react in any way to the Nazi violation of the Treaty of Versailles, to the rearmament of the German army, to the capture (Anschluss) of Austria, although they had every opportunity for successful diplomatic and military pressure on Germany. Convinced of his own impunity and the weakness of a potential enemy, Hitler unleashed the war.

Stalin and the Politburo still tried to negotiate with England and France, because they understood that after Poland Hitler could attack the USSR, but these countries (primarily England) frankly sabotaged the negotiations and played for time, hoping that the USSR and Germany would mutually weaken each other in war. For example, for the last round of negotiations, when the war was already on the nose, France and England sent their representatives to the USSR ... by sea, that is, by the longest route. The negotiations stalled on August 21 due to the unwillingness of France and England to conclude any specific agreements and put pressure on Poland, which was not going to accept Soviet assistance in any form.

It was as a result of this policy of encouraging the aggressor that the USSR concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (just two days after the termination of negotiations with Western countries) in order not to become the next victim of the Nazis and to receive (according to the secret protocols to the pact) a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe - a buffer against inevitable Nazi aggression.

In addition, any fascism (German Nazism, Italian and Eastern European fascism, fascist regimes in Latin America like Pinochet's in Chile) is based on anti-communism. Any agreement between the Nazis and the USSR could only be temporary, and that is how it was viewed by both sides in 1939. In this regard, talking about some kind of "honest cooperation" is simply stupid.

The Union sent troops into Poland not simultaneously with the Nazis, not on September 1, but on September 18, when the military defeat of Poland was already a fait accompli, although fighting in different parts of the country was still ongoing. Joint military operations were not carried out, although, of course, the Soviet and German troops established demarcation lines together and so on.

Crossing the border of Poland, the Soviet troops pursued a pragmatic goal - to move the border further to the West, so that in the event of German aggression against the USSR, they would have more time to protect the economic and political centers of the USSR. It must be said that in the Great Patriotic War, the German blitzkrieg practically thwarted these plans: the territories newly annexed to the USSR under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact were captured by the Nazis in a matter of days.

This statement, of course, contradicts the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal, according to which Nazi Germany was recognized as the aggressor and initiator of the war. The process was adversarial, war criminals and Nazi organizations had every opportunity to defend themselves, their lawyers tried to refute this thesis, but they did not succeed.

Speaking about the specific case that gave rise to these questions: the truth on this matter should still be established not by the court and not by the prosecutor's office, but by historians in public discussions.

Kirill Novikov

Researcher, RANEPA

The fact is that Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, and attacked alone, except for the Slovak units. England and France declared war on Germany on September 3, which turned the Polish-German war into a world war, and the USSR invaded Poland only on the 17th, that is, when the world war had already been unleashed. At the same time, the invasion of the Red Army in Poland went in line with the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, so the fact of cooperation between Moscow and Berlin cannot be denied.

However, this does not contradict the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Firstly, the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1946 was still unpublished, so the tribunal could not, in principle, evaluate it. Secondly, the tribunal was established "to try and punish the main war criminals of the European Axis countries", that is, it could judge only the losers, but could not judge the winners. Consequently, the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal cannot be used to determine the degree of responsibility of the USSR and the allies for unleashing the war. Finally, from the fact that the defendants were found guilty of crimes against peace, it does not follow that there were no other guilty parties.

I can comment on the event connected with V. Luzgin as follows. I believe that a person has the right to his own opinion, even if he is mistaken in something, from someone's point of view. This is called freedom of speech, which we have written in the Constitution. History is up for debate. It is necessary to conduct discussions, give arguments, and not drag them into jail.

September 1, 1939. This is the day of the beginning of the greatest catastrophe that claimed tens of millions of human lives, destroyed thousands of cities and villages, and eventually led to a new redivision of the world. It was on this day that the troops of Nazi Germany crossed the western border of Poland. The Second World War began.

And on September 17, 1939, Soviet troops hit the back of defending Poland from the east. Thus began the last partition of Poland, which was the result of a criminal collusion between the two greatest totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - the Nazi and the Communist. The joint parade of Soviet and Nazi troops on the streets of the occupied Polish Brest in 1939 became a shameful symbol of this collusion.

Before the storm

The end of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles created even more contradictions and points of tension in Europe than before. And if we add to this the rapid strengthening of the communist Soviet Union, which, in fact, was turned into a giant weapons factory, it becomes clear that a new war on the European continent was almost inevitable.

After the First World War, Germany was crushed and humiliated: it was forbidden to have a normal army and navy, it lost significant territories, huge reparations caused economic collapse and poverty. Such a policy of the victorious states was extremely short-sighted: it was clear that the Germans, a talented, hardworking and energetic nation, would not tolerate such humiliation and would strive for revenge. And so it happened: in 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany.

Poland and Germany

After the end of the Great War, Poland again received its statehood. In addition, the Polish state is still seriously "grown up" with new lands. Part of Poznan and the Pomeranian lands, which had previously been part of Prussia, went to Poland. Danzig received the status of a "free city". Part of Silesia became part of Poland, the Poles seized part of Lithuania by force along with Vilnius.

Poland, together with Germany, took part in the annexation of Czechoslovakia, which in no way can be attributed to deeds that should be proud of. In 1938, the Teszyn region was annexed under the pretext of protecting the Polish population.

In 1934, a ten-year non-aggression pact was signed between the countries, and a year later, an agreement on economic cooperation. In general, it should be noted that with the advent of Hitler to power, German-Polish relations improved significantly. But it didn't last long.

In March 1939, Germany demanded that Poland return Danzig to it, join the Anti-Comintern Pact and provide a land corridor for Germany to the Baltic coast. Poland did not accept this ultimatum and early in the morning on September 1, German troops crossed the Polish border, Operation Weiss began.

Poland and the USSR

Relations between Russia and Poland have traditionally been difficult. After the end of the First World War, Poland gained independence and almost immediately the Soviet-Polish war began. Fortune was changeable: first, the Poles reached Kyiv and Minsk, and then the Soviet troops reached Warsaw. But then there was the "miracle on the Vistula" and the complete defeat of the Red Army.

According to the Riga Peace Treaty, the western parts of Belarus and Ukraine were part of the Polish state. The new eastern border of the country passed along the so-called Curzon Line. In the early 1930s, a treaty of friendship and cooperation and a non-aggression agreement were signed. But, despite this, Soviet propaganda painted Poland as one of the main enemies of the USSR.

Germany and USSR

Relations between the USSR and Germany in the period between the two world wars were contradictory. Already in 1922, an agreement was signed on cooperation between the Red Army and the Reichswehr. Germany had serious restrictions under the Treaty of Versailles. Therefore, part of the development of new weapons systems and the training of personnel was carried out by the Germans on the territory of the USSR. A flight school and a tank school were opened, among the graduates of which were the best German tank crews and pilots of the Second World War.

After Hitler came to power, relations between the two countries deteriorated, military-technical cooperation was curtailed. Germany again began to be portrayed by official Soviet propaganda as an enemy of the USSR.

On August 23, 1939, the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR was signed in Moscow. In fact, in this document, the two dictators Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe between themselves. According to the secret protocol of this document, the territories of the Baltic countries, as well as Finland, parts of Romania were included in the sphere of interests of the USSR. Eastern Poland belonged to the Soviet sphere of influence, and its western part was to go to Germany.

Attack

On September 1, 1939, German aircraft began bombing Polish cities, and ground forces crossed the border. The invasion was preceded by several provocations on the border. The invasion force consisted of five army groups and a reserve. Already on September 9, the Germans reached Warsaw, and the battle for the Polish capital began, which lasted until September 20.

On September 17, practically without resistance, Soviet troops entered Poland from the east. This immediately made the position of the Polish troops almost hopeless. On September 18, the Polish high command crossed the Romanian border. Separate pockets of Polish resistance remained until the beginning of October, but it was already agony.

Part of the Polish territories, which were previously part of Prussia, went to Germany, and the rest was divided into governor-generals. Polish territories occupied by the USSR became part of Ukraine and Belarus.

Poland suffered huge losses during World War II. The invaders banned the Polish language, all national educational and cultural institutions, newspapers were closed. Representatives of the Polish intelligentsia and Jews were massively exterminated. In the territories occupied by the USSR, Soviet punitive bodies worked tirelessly. Tens of thousands of captured Polish officers were destroyed in Katyn and other similar places. Poland lost about 6 million people during the war.

In 1981, Europe's attention was focused on Poland. By the beginning of the year, almost a third of the millions of members of the Polish Workers' Party had joined the ranks of the independent Solidarity trade union. Its number reached 10.5 million people. The trade union became an influential political force, the official delegation of Solidarity was even received by the Pope in the Vatican. However, the authorities were frightened by the demands put forward by the union for a national referendum on the establishment of non-communist rule in the country.

The trade union "Solidarity" was formed in 1980 as a logical continuation of the human rights organization "Committee of Public Self-Defense - Committee for the Protection of Workers" (KOS-KOR).

At the time of the creation of KOS-KOR, Poland was experiencing a severe economic crisis - its debts to capitalist countries reached $20 billion. In an effort to pay off its debts, the country began to save on salaries and consumer goods, which, of course, caused discontent among the population - up to the organization of strikes.

The leader of one such strike, which took place in 1980 in Gdansk, Lech Walesa became the head of Solidarity. The movement demanded free elections, control of the economy by workers' organizations, and the transfer of enterprises into the hands of workers' self-government. The Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), which controlled Poland in those years, delayed reforms. The authorities tried to paralyze the work of the trade union, meanwhile the country was shaken by strikes one after another.

Photo report: 35 years of events in Poland

Is_photorep_included10423193: 1

Solidarity planned a general strike demanding free elections. It was obvious that if they took place, then Solidarity would win, and the PUWP would remain out of work. In this case, the Warsaw Pact states would have the right to send troops to Poland in order to prevent the loss of the country. This could lead to war. In the meantime, the Soviet Union promised to help Poland if the PZPR could deal with the labor movement on its own.

On the night of December 13, 1981, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Polish People's Republic, Secretary of the Central Committee of the PZPR, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, introduced martial law in Poland and outlawed Solidarity.

In the very first days, more than 3,000 activists were detained, including Walesa. All of them were sent to internment centers. In total, almost 10 thousand people were interned during martial law.

The streets of Poland were flooded with tanks, armored personnel carriers, soldiers armed with machine guns. Telephone communications were cut off across the country and airports were closed. More than 2,000 military commissars were appointed in cities and large enterprises. On the morning of December 13, the head of state addressed the perplexed citizens on TV and announced the introduction of martial law and the transfer of power to the Military Council of National Salvation.

Taken by surprise, Solidarity was unable to repulse the organized actions of the state.

Until December 23, law enforcement agencies suppressed resistance in the main strongholds of Solidarity - at the Gdansk shipyard, the Krakow metallurgical plant, the Lublin automobile plant and other enterprises. The most fierce resistance was provided by the miners. There were also casualties: for example, nine strikers died at the Vuek mine, three more during the dispersal of a hundred-thousand-strong demonstration in Gdansk. One of the students of the Wroclaw University of Technology was beaten to death while trying to resist during the seizure of university premises by the security forces. In total, more than a hundred oppositionists died during the years of martial law.

Strikes and demonstrations had no centralized leadership. By the end of December, the state managed to suppress them. Relying on half a million adherents, the military regime defeated the ten million strong trade union association. The incident demoralized many supporters of Solidarity.

Throughout 1982, members of Solidarity, which had gone underground, repeatedly demonstrated.

Now they were actively resisting the military, throwing stones at them. There were more young people among the activists, and the slogans acquired a harsher anti-communist character. However, risky demonstrations did not bring results, and by autumn the activity had noticeably dropped. Supporters of Solidarity fought against the regime by being late for work, campaigning through graffiti (“Winter is yours, spring is ours!”, for example), and boycotting state events.

Seeing that opposition activity began to decline, Jaruzelski gradually softened the military regime. On July 22, 1983, martial law was lifted.

Martial law could not solve the problems of the country. The trade union operated underground and maintained influence in Polish society, speaking under the slogans of combating the totalitarian communist system and the need for fundamental socio-economic and democratic reforms.

The first free parliamentary elections in Poland were held in 1989, and Solidarity won. In January 1990, the PZPR finally gave in and decided to dissolve the party, and in December, Solidarity leader Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.

“If I had been told [in my youth] that I would become a leader who would succeed in defeating communism, I would never have believed it,” he admitted in an interview. "That's why I'm the happiest person in the galaxy."

The actions of General Jaruzelski received a very ambiguous assessment. So, for example, according to the former Minister of Defense of the USSR and Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov, the introduction of martial law saved Poland from the introduction of Soviet troops. The Poles themselves were not too grateful for such a rescue - in 1991-2008 Jaruzelski and other members of the State Council were repeatedly tried to bring to court, and in 2011 the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland recognized the decree on the introduction of martial law as contrary to the constitution of the Republic of Poland and the constitution of the PPR. The Institute of National Remembrance named Jaruzelski and his accomplices leaders of an "organized armed criminal group."

There is a version according to which the general allegedly asked Moscow to send troops to Poland, blackmailing it with the fact that in case of refusal, his country would withdraw from the Warsaw Pact.

As Pyotr Cheryomushkin, a historian and journalist, author of the book Jaruzelsky: Tested by Russia, dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the introduction of the military regime, explained to Gazeta.Ru, this version appeared thanks to the American historian Mark Kramer, who in 1997 received access to the records of the colonel Anoshkin, adjutant of Marshal Viktor Kulikov, who during the years of martial law in Poland commanded the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member states.

Anoshkin took shorthand of Jaruzelski's talks with Kulikov, and in these transcripts Kramer found notes indicating Jaruzelski's desire to see Soviet tanks in Poland. Jaruzelski himself denied until the end of his life that such a proposal had come from him. He denied the veracity of the document and argued bitterly about it with Kramer. The notebook contained entries about how Jaruzelski shared with Kulikov that he was not confident in his abilities and that in some regions of Poland he had no troops at all. However, the general himself considered such conversations as a sounding board in relation to Soviet plans.

“By December 13, everything was ready, as he said, “buttoned to the last button,” for the introduction of martial law,” says Cheryomushkin. - And he believed that it was better to do it with Polish hands than to involve Soviet troops. They themselves were also not very eager to go to Poland. Jaruzelski delayed the imposition of martial law as best he could until the very last moment, when there was nowhere to delay any further.

In his memoirs, he wrote that he had very doubts, to the point that his hand sometimes lay on a gun and he thought about suicide.

But in later times, he spoke in such a way that, they say, if they put a bag on my head and took me to Moscow, as they did with Dubcek (Alexander Dubcek is a Czech politician, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the initiator of liberalization in Czechoslovakia - "Gazeta.Ru"), then the Polish people would treat me better than they do now.

Jaruzelski's reputation was greatly affected by the fact that Solidarity members ruled the country until 2015. Thus, Lech Kaczynski, who died in 2010, headed one of the commissions of the trade union, and Bronislaw Komarovsky, who replaced him, worked in the trade union Center for Social Research.

“Now that the ultra-right and the Right Justice party are in power, one should not expect any indulgence regarding Jaruzelski’s reputation,” the expert shares. - There are various calls to posthumously deprive him of military ranks.

Jaruzelski always acted with an eye on the Soviet Union, on Russia, on Soviet marshals and generals.

All the time he took into account their point of view, acted in such a way that his steps did not in any way violate the interests of the Soviet Union. He believed that the interests of the Soviet Union and Poland could coincide. Modern politicians do not think so, they hold the exact opposite opinion. They believe that Poland was oppressed by the Soviet Union."

A fairly large grouping of Soviet troops was created for the Polish operation.

By the evening of September 16, the troops of the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts were deployed in the initial areas for the offensive. The Soviet group united 8 rifle, 5 cavalry and 2 tank corps, 21 rifle and 13 cavalry divisions, 16 tank, 2 motorized brigades and the Dnieper military flotilla (DVF). The air forces of the fronts, taking into account the 1st, 2nd and 3rd special-purpose aviation armies relocated to their territory on September 9-10, totaled 3,298 aircraft. In addition, about 16.5 thousand border guards of the Belarusian and Kyiv border districts were serving at the border Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. S. 328..

On the eastern border of Poland, apart from 25 battalions and 7 squadrons of the border guard (about 12 thousand people, or 8 soldiers per 1 km of the border), there were practically no other troops, which was well known to Soviet intelligence. So, according to intelligence data of the 4th Army, “the border strip to the river. Shara is not busy with field wars, and the KOP battalions are weak in their combat training and combat effectiveness ... Serious resistance from the Polish army to the river. It is unlikely that the Poles will give a shchara.” Ibid. At 05:00 on September 17, the advanced and assault detachments of the Soviet armies and border troops crossed the border and defeated the Polish border guards. Crossing the border confirmed the data of Soviet intelligence about the absence of significant groupings of Polish troops, which made it possible to accelerate the offensive.

For the Polish leadership, the intervention of the USSR was completely unexpected. Polish intelligence did not record any threatening movements of the Red Army, and the information received on September 1-5 was perceived as an understandable reaction to the outbreak of war in Europe. And although on September 12 information was received from Paris about a possible action by the USSR against Poland, they were not taken seriously.

The behavior of the Soviet troops also seemed strange; as a rule, they did not shoot first, they treated the Polish troops with demonstrative goodwill, treated them to cigarettes and said that they had come to the aid against the Germans. On the ground, they waited for the instructions of the commander-in-chief. At first, the commander-in-chief of the Polish army, Rydz-Smigly, was inclined to give the order to repel the Soviet invasion. However, a closer examination of the situation showed that there are no forces, except for the KOP battalions and a certain number of rear and spare parts of the army, in Eastern Poland. These weakly armed troops had no chance in battle with the Red Army. As a result, on September 17, the Polish leadership was faced with a fait accompli and, based on the statements of the Soviet government and its note, believed that the Red Army was introduced in order to limit the zone of German occupation. Therefore, at about 23.40 on September 17, the order of Rydz-Smigly was transmitted by radio: “The Soviets have invaded. I order to carry out a withdrawal to Romania and Hungary by the shortest routes. Do not conduct hostilities with the Soviets, only in the event of an attempt on their part to disarm our units. The task for Warsaw and Modlin, which must defend themselves against the Germans, is unchanged. The units to which the Soviets have approached must negotiate with them in order to withdraw the garrisons to Romania or Hungary. Only units of the KOP, retreating from Zbruch to the Dniester, and units covering the "Romanian suburb" were ordered to continue resistance. Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. p. 334..

Of course, the Polish command had a plan for the deployment of troops on the eastern border "Vskhud", which was developed from 1935-1936. Ibid .. It was planned to deploy all the available forces of the Polish Army on the eastern border. Of course, in the real situation of the second half of September 1939, when Poland spent all the available defense potential on attempts to continue resisting Nazi Germany, which was superior to the Poles in manpower and equipment and had already practically won the war, this whole plan remained on paper.

On the right flank of the Belorussian Front of the Red Army, from the Latvian border to Begoml, the 3rd Army was deployed, which had the task of reaching the Sharkovschina Dunilovichi Lake line by the end of the first day of the offensive. Blyada Yablontsy, and the next day to the front Sventsyany, Mikhalishki and then move on to Vilna. The main blow was dealt by the right wing of the army, where the troops of the 4th Rifle Corps and the mobile group as part of the 24th Cavalry Division and the 22nd Tank Brigade were concentrated under the command of the commander of the 24th brigade commander P. Akhlyustin Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. S. 335.

To the south of the 3rd Army, on the front from Begoml to Ivanets, the troops of the 11th Army were deployed, which had the task of taking Molodechno, Volozhin by the end of September 17, the next day Oshmyany, Ivye and moving further to Grodno. Having crossed the border at 5 o'clock on September 17, the 6th tank brigade occupied Volozhin at 12 o'clock, formations of the 16th rifle corps at the same time entered Krasnoye, and by 19 o'clock they reached Molodechno, Benzovets. The formations of the 3rd Cavalry Corps had already reached the area of ​​​​Rachinety, Poryche, Marshalka by 15 o'clock, and on the morning of September 18 they moved further towards Lida, reaching the front of Rynoviche, Constanta, Voishtoviche by 10 o'clock. At this time, the 3rd Cavalry Corps and the 6th Tank Brigade were given the task of advancing on Vilna, which they were ordered to occupy.

At that time, only insignificant Polish units were in Vilna: about 16 infantry battalions (about 7 thousand soldiers and 14 thousand militia) with 14 light guns. However, the Polish command in Vilna did not have a general attitude towards the Bolshevik invasion. At 9 o'clock on September 18, the commander of the garrison, Colonel Ya. Okulich-Kozarin, gave the order: “We are not at war with the Bolsheviks, units, by additional order, will leave Vilna and cross the Lithuanian border; non-combat units can start leaving the city, combat units remain in position, but cannot shoot without an order. ” Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. S. 335 .. However, since some of the officers perceived this order as treason, and rumors spread in the city about a coup in Germany and a declaration of war by Romania and Hungary, Colonel Okulich-Kozarin around 16.30 decided to refrain from issuing an order to retreat up to 20 hours.

Around 19.10, the commander of the 2nd battalion, deployed on the southern and southwestern outskirts of the city, Lieutenant Colonel S. Shileiko reported on the appearance of Soviet tanks and asked if he could open fire. this order was transmitted to the troops, 8 tanks had already passed the first line of defense and reserve units were sent to fight them. At about 20:00 Okulich-Kozarin ordered the troops to withdraw from the city and sent Lieutenant Colonel T. Podvysotsky to the location of the Soviet troops in order to notify them that the Polish side did not want to fight them and demand that they leave the city. After that, Okulich-Kozarin himself left Vilna, and Podvysotsky, who returned at about 21:00, decided to defend the city and at about 21:45 issued an order to suspend the withdrawal of troops. At that time, uncoordinated battles were going on in the city, in which the Vilna Polish youth played an important role. The teacher G. Osinski organized volunteer teams of gymnasium students who took up positions on the hills. The oldest ones fired, the rest delivered ammunition, organized communications, etc.

Approaching at about 19.30 on September 18 to Vilna, the 8th and 7th tank regiments started a battle for the southern part of the city. The 8th tank regiment broke into the southern part of the city at 20.30. The 7th Panzer Regiment, which ran into a stubborn defense, was able to enter the southwestern part of the city only at dawn. Due to the stubborn defense, the city was taken only the next day.

While all these turbulent events were taking place in the Vilna region, the troops of the 16th Rifle Corps of the 11th Army were turned to the northwest and moved towards Lida.

While the troops of the 3rd and 11th armies occupied the north-eastern part of Western Belarus, to the south, on the front from Fanipol to Nesvizh, units of the KMG went on the offensive, with the task of reaching Lyubcha, Kirin on the first day of the offensive, and the next day to force the river. Keep quiet and move to Volkovysk. The 15th Panzer Corps, advancing on the southern flank of the group, crossed the border at 0500 and, breaking the slight resistance of the Polish border guards, moved west. By the evening of September 17, the 27th tank brigade crossed the river. Servech, 2nd tank brigade r. Usha, and the 20th Motorized Brigade was pulling up to the border. At about 4 p.m. on September 18, the 2nd tank brigade entered Slonim Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. S. 340 ..

In Grodno there were insignificant forces of Polish troops: 2 improvised battalions and an assault company of the reserve center of the 29th Infantry Division, the 31st guard battalion, 5 platoons of positional artillery (5 guns), 2 anti-aircraft machine gun companies, a two-battalion detachment of Colonel Zh. Blumsky, the national defense battalion "Poctavy", the dismounted 32nd division of the Podlasie cavalry brigade, there were a lot of gendarmerie and police in the city. The commander of the "Grodno" district, Colonel B. Adamovich, was determined to evacuate units to Lithuania. On September 18, riots took place in the city in connection with the release of prisoners from the city prison and the anti-Polish speech of local "red" activists. Soviet troops were expected from the east, but they approached the city from the south, which was beneficial for the defenders, since the right bank of the Neman was steep.

Only as fuel arrived, units of the 15th Panzer Corps began to move towards Grodno in peculiar waves from 07:00 on September 20. At 1300, 50 tanks of the 27th Tank Brigade approached the southern outskirts of Grodno. The tankers attacked the enemy on the move and by the evening occupied the southern part of the city, reaching the banks of the Neman. Several tanks managed to break through the bridge to the northern bank in the city center. However, without infantry support, the tanks were attacked by soldiers, policemen and youths, who used a few guns and Molotov cocktails. As a result, part of the tanks was destroyed, and part was taken back to the Neman. The 27th Tank Brigade, with the support of the 119th Rifle Regiment of the 13th Rifle Division, which arrived at 18:00, occupied the southern part of the city. A group of junior lieutenant Shaikhuddinov, with the help of local workers, crossed in boats to the right bank of the Neman, 2 km east of the city. On the other side, battles began for cemeteries, where machine-gun nests were equipped. During the night battle, the 119th regiment managed to gain a foothold on the right bank and reach the approaches to the eastern outskirts of the city.

By the morning of September 21, the 101st Rifle Regiment approached, which also crossed to the right bank and deployed north of the 119th Regiment. From 6 o'clock on September 21, the regiments, reinforced by 4 guns and 2 tanks, attacked the city and by 12 o'clock, despite the counterattacks of the Poles, they reached the railway line, and by 14 o'clock they reached the center of Grodno, but by evening they were again taken to the outskirts. In these battles, the regiments were supported by a motorized group of the 16th Rifle Corps, which, after spending the night on the highway a few kilometers from Skidel, moved towards Grodno at dawn on September 21. Approaching the city, the tanks suppressed firing points on its eastern outskirts, which provided support to the 119th and 101st rifle regiments. The attack of the city from the east was successful, but after crossing the railway line, the main forces of the rifle units again retreated to the outskirts. As a result, the tanks were forced to fight alone. The Soviet-Polish war of 1939// www.hronos.ru..

In the second echelon behind KM G, the troops of the 10th Army advanced, which on September 19 crossed the border with the task of reaching the front of Novogrudok, Gorodishche and moving further to the Palace. By the end of the first day of the offensive, the troops of the 10th Army reached the line of the river. Neman and Usha. Continuing the slow advance in the second echelon of the Belorussian Front, by the end of September 20, the army troops reached the Naliboki, Derevna, Mir line, where they received the task of advancing to the Sokulka front. Bolshaya Berestovitsa, Svisloch, Novy Dvor, Pruzhany. In the evening, by order of the commander of the Belorussian Front No. 04 of the army, the troops of the 5th rifle, 6th cavalry and 15th tank corps were subordinated. However, during the negotiations between the commanders of the 10th Army, KMG and the Belorussian Front on September 21, it was decided to leave the 6th Cavalry and 15th Tank Corps as part of the KMR Soviet-Polish War of 1939// www.hronos.ru..

On the front of the 4th Army, which had the task of advancing on Baranovichi with access to the line of Snov, Zhilichi by the end of the first day of the operation, the offensive began at 5 o'clock in the morning on September 17. At 22:00, the 29th Tank Brigade occupied Baranovichi and the fortified area located here, which was not occupied by Polish troops. The tank battalion under the command of I.D. was the first to enter the city. Chernyakhovsky. Up to 5 thousand Polish soldiers were captured in the Baranovichi region, 4 anti-tank guns and 2 food echelons became Soviet trophies.

The 29th tank brigade, which remained on the outskirts of Pruzhany, on September 20 was engaged in a technical inspection of tanks and conducted reconnaissance in the direction of Brest. Vidomlya had contact with the German units. As the brigade commander S. M. Krivoshey later recalled, “the intelligence sent forward under the command of Vladimir Yulianovich Borovitsky, secretary of the party commission of the brigade, soon returned with a dozen soldiers and officers of the German motorized corps of General Guderian, who managed to occupy the city of Brest. Having no precise instructions on how to deal with the Germans, I asked the chief of staff to contact the commander [Chuikov], and I myself engaged in a non-committal conversation with the commissar. The conversation took place in Lenin's tent, where, along with indicators of combat training and the growth of our country's industrial power, posters were hanging on folding portable stands calling for the destruction of fascism. Many Germans had cameras. After looking around, they asked permission to photograph the tent and those present in it. One of them took a picture of us with the commissar in a group of German officers against the background of an anti-fascist poster ...

Having fed the Germans with rich Russian borscht and kara-style barbecue (the guests devoured all this with enviable zeal), we sent them home, instructing them to convey “warm greetings” to General Guderian. The brigade commander forgot to mention that during dinner the brigade band played several marches.

Troops of the 23rd Rifle Corps were deployed in Polesie, who were forbidden to cross the border until further notice. The appeal of the corps commander to the Military Council of the Belorussian Front with a request to go on the offensive along with the rest of the troops of the front was rejected. As a result, the corps crossed the border at 16.25 on September 18. At 11 a.m. on September 19, the advance detachment of the 52nd Infantry Division occupied Lakhva. Moving on, the Soviet troops in Kozhan-Gorodok were fired upon by a detachment of the 16th battalion of the KOP. Having turned around, the units entered the battle and soon pushed the Poles into the forest north of Kozhan-Gorodok. During the battle, the Soviet units lost 3 people killed and 4 wounded. 85 Polish soldiers were taken prisoner, 3 of them were wounded and 4 were killed. At about 5 p.m., the 205th Infantry Regiment with the 1st Battalion of the 158th Artillery Regiment occupied David-Gorodok after a small battle. At 19.30, units of the 52nd Infantry Division occupied Luninets. The Soviet-Polish war of 1939// www.hronos.ru. .

The troops of the Ukrainian Front also crossed the Polish border on September 17 and began to move deep into Poland. On the northern flank on the front from Olevsk to Yampol, the troops of the 5th Army deployed, which was tasked with "delivering a powerful and lightning strike against the Polish troops, resolutely and quickly advancing in the direction of Rovno." The 60th Infantry Division, which had the task of advancing on Sarny, concentrated in the Olevsk area. In the area of ​​​​Gorodnitsa Korets, the troops of the 15th Rifle Corps deployed, which had the immediate task of reaching the river. Goryn, and by the end of September 17, take Rovno. The 8th Rifle Corps, deployed in the Ostrog Slavuta area, was supposed to take Dubno by the end of the day. On September 18, both corps were to occupy Lutsk and move towards Vladimir-Volynsky.

By the end of September 22, the troops of the 5th Army reached the Kovel Rozhitse Vladimir-Volynsky Ivanichi line. To the south, on the Teofipol Voytovtsy front, the troops of the 6th Army deployed, with the task of advancing on Tarnopol, Ezerna and Kozova, then reaching the Buek Przemyshlyany front and further on to Lvov.

At 04:00 on September 17, an assault group of border guards and Red Army soldiers captured the Volochinsky border bridge. At 04:30, the troops of the 17th Rifle Corps launched an artillery strike on enemy firing points and strongholds, and at 05:00 they began to force the river. Zbruch, using the captured bridge and established crossings. Forcing the river practically without any resistance from the enemy, units of the 17th Rifle Corps around 8.00 turned into marching columns and moved towards Tarnopol. Mobile formations quickly overtook the infantry and after 18.00 on September 17, the 10th tank brigade entered Tarnopol Ibid. Tarnopol from the north-west, at about 22:00, reached its western outskirts and began to clear it of Polish units. At 7 pm, 11 tanks of the 5th Cavalry Division of the 2nd Cavalry Corps entered the city from the north, however, not knowing the situation, the tankers decided to wait until the morning to attack. Having entered Tarnopol, the 5th division had to clean up the city from scattered groups of Polish officers, gendarmes and just the local population. During skirmishes in the city between 10.20 and 14.00 on September 18, the division lost 3 people killed and 37 wounded. At the same time at 10.30 rifle divisions of the 17th rifle corps entered the city. Up to 600 Polish soldiers were taken prisoner.

The formations of the 2nd Cavalry Corps advancing north from the morning of September 18 crossed the river. Seret and at 10.00 received an order from the command of the Ukrainian Front to move on a forced march to Lvov and capture the city.

The consolidated motorized detachment of the 2nd Cavalry Corps and the 24th Tank Brigade with 35 bales approached Lvov at about 02:00 on September 19. After stubborn fighting, the city was taken.

On September 20, the troops of the 12th Army advanced to the Nikolaev Stryi line. In the Stryi region, at about 1700, contact was made with German troops, who on September 22 handed over the city to the Red Army. On September 23, the 26th tank brigade approached the same place. As a result of the negotiations, the Soviet troops were stopped on the reached line.

At 10.30 on September 21, the headquarters of the Belarusian and Ukrainian fronts received an order from the People's Commissar of Defense No. 16693, demanding to stop the troops on the line reached by advanced units by 20.00 on September 20 Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. S. 367 .. The troops were tasked with pulling up the lagging behind units and rears, establishing stable communications, being in a state of full combat readiness, being vigilant and taking measures to protect the rears and headquarters. In addition, the command of the Belorussian Front was allowed to continue the offensive in the Suwalki salient. At 22.15 on September 21, the headquarters of the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts received order No. 156 of the People's Commissar of Defense, which outlined the contents of the Soviet-German protocol and allowed to start moving west at dawn on September 23. The next day, the Military Council of the Belorussian Front issued the corresponding order No. 05. On September 25, the troops received the directive of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 011 and the order of the Military Council of the Belorussian Front No. 06, warning that "when the army moves from the reached line of Augustow Bialystok Brest-Litovsk to the west in the territory left by the German army, it is possible that the Poles will collect scattered units into detachments and gangs that, together with the Polish troops operating near Warsaw, can put up stubborn resistance to us and in some places deliver counterattacks ”Radzinovich V. Search for Anti-Katyn (interview with Boris Nosov) .// New Poland. 2000. No. 11..

On September 21, the 2nd tank brigade in Sokulka formed a detachment for operations in the Augustow Suwalki area under the command of Major F.P. Chuvakin, which consisted of 470 people, 252 rifles, 74 machine guns, 46 guns, 34 cars. Moving north, at about 5 o'clock on September 22, at Sopotskin, the detachment caught up with the Poles retreating from Grodno, who hoped to gain a foothold in. old forts of the Grodno fortress, where there were military depots. In the ensuing battle, which lasted up to 10 hours, 11 Red Army soldiers were killed and 14 wounded, 4 tanks and 5 vehicles were hit. The enemy made extensive use of Molotov cocktails, which created significant problems in the conditions of tank operations without infantry cover.

Meanwhile, a detachment of the 27th Tank Brigade of 20 BT-7 tanks and 1 armored vehicle under the command of Major Bogdanov combed the border line with Lithuania and arrived in Suwalki at 24:00 on September 24 .

The troops of the 3rd Army continued to guard the Latvian and Lithuanian borders from Drissa to Druskininkai. The 11th Army began redeployment along the Lithuanian border to Grodno. Formations of the 16th Rifle Corps continued to advance towards Grodno and on September 21 occupied Eishishki. By September 24, the troops of the corps deployed on the Lithuanian and German borders north and northwest of Grodno.

By September 26-28, the troops of the 3rd and 11th armies entrenched themselves on the border with Lithuania and East Prussia from Druskininkai to Shchuchin. Meanwhile, on September 21, at negotiations in Vaukavysk, representatives of the German command and the 6th Cavalry Corps agreed on the procedure for the withdrawal of the Wehrmacht from Bialystok. Soviet-Polish war of 1939 // www.hronos.ru.

To the north, the 20th motorized brigade operated, transferred to the 10th Army, which on September 25 at 15 o'clock took Osovets from the Germans, on September 26, moving along the bank of the river. Biebrzha, entered the Falcons, and by the evening of September 29 reached Zambruv. On September 27, the forward detachments of the 5th Rifle Corps occupied Nur and Chizhev, and in the Gainuyki area, parts of the corps again stumbled upon a Polish warehouse, where about 14,000 shells, 5 million rounds of ammunition, 1 tankette, 2 armored vehicles, 2 vehicles and 2 barrels of fuel.

On the southern sector of the front, the troops of the 4th Army moved to the west. At 3 p.m. on September 22, the 29th Tank Brigade entered Brest, which was occupied by the troops of the 19th Motorized Corps of the Wehrmacht. As Krivoshey later recalled, in negotiations with General G. Guderian, he proposed the following parade procedure: “At 16 o’clock, parts of your corps in a marching column, with standards in front, leave the city, my units, also in a marching column, enter the city, stop at streets where the German regiments pass, and salute the passing units with their banners. Bands perform military marches” Melkov D. Third Reich: the practice of political terrorism // MEMO. 2001. No. 1. In the end, Guderian, who insisted on holding a full-fledged parade with preliminary formation, agreed to the proposed option, “having stipulated, however, that he would stand on the podium with me and greet the passing units” Melkov D. Third Reich: practice political terrorism // MEMO. 2001. No. 1.

By September 29, the troops of the Belorussian Front advanced to the Shchuchin line Staviski Lomza Zambruv Ciekhanovets Kosuv-Lacki Sokoluv-Podlaski Siedlce Lukow Vohyn. On October 1, the commander of the 4th Army, Divisional Commander Chuikov, issued an order, which demanded that “with the forward detachments, there should be one commander of the headquarters and political department for negotiating with the German troops.”

By the end of September 29, the troops of the Ukrainian Front were on the line of Pugachev Piaski Piotrkuv Krzemen Bilgoraj Przemysl of the upper reaches of the river. San Meltyukhov A.V. Soviet-Polish wars. M., 2005. S. 381.

Here we should dwell on another side of the Polish campaign of the Red Army, associated with various military crimes of Soviet military personnel. Lynching, looting and robbery as manifestations of the class struggle were not only not persecuted, but even encouraged. Here are some very illustrative examples.

On September 21, having disarmed the Polish troops, units of the 14th Cavalry Division let the soldiers go home, while the officers and gendarmes were left until further notice on the scale in Sasuva. At 7 pm, the prisoners entered the basement of the school, killed a worker who was guarding weapons, and opened fire from the windows. The battalion commissar Ponomarev with the Red Army men suppressed the uprising of the officers and, having arrived at the headquarters of the 14th Cavalry Division, told about what had happened. At the same time, he expressed the idea that all officers and gendarmes are bastards that need to be destroyed. Impressed by what they heard, on September 22, in the village of Boshevitsy, 4 Red Army soldiers, under various pretexts, took 4 captured officers from the custody of the people's militia and shot them.

On September 22, during the battles for Grodno, at about 10 o'clock, the commander of the communications platoon, junior lieutenant Dubovik, received an order to escort 80-90 prisoners to the rear. Having moved 1.5-2 km from the city, Dubovik interrogated the prisoners in order to identify the officers and persons who took part in the murder of the Bolsheviks. Promising to release the prisoners, he sought confessions and shot 29 people. The rest of the prisoners were returned to Grodno. This was known to the command of the 101st Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, but no action was taken against Dubovik. Moreover, the commander of the 3rd battalion, senior lieutenant Tolochko, gave a direct order to shoot the officers.

On September 21, the Military Council of the 6th Army, represented by Commander Commander Golikov and a member of the Military Council, Brigadier Commissar Zakharychev, while in parts of the 2nd Cavalry Corps, issued an obviously criminal decision on the production and procedure for lynching the execution of 10 people (surnames are not indicated in the decision). On this basis, the head of the special department of the 2nd cavalry corps, Koberniuk, went to the city of Zlochow, arrested various employees of the Polish prison, police, etc., such as Klimetsky V.V., according to the position of head. prison, Kuchmirovsky K.B., pom. early prison, Lukashevsky M.S., vice city prosecutor. Plakht I., an official of a beaten headman and others, in the amount of 10 people, and all these persons, at the expense of the limit established by the Military Council of the 6th Army, was shot in the prison building. This lynching was attended by ordinary employees of the prison. This criminal decision of the Military Council on lynching was quickly passed on to the leading circles of the commanders and commissars of formations and units of the 2nd cavalry corps, and this led to grave consequences when a number of commanders, military commissars and even Red Army soldiers, following the example of their leaders, began to lynch prisoners, suspicious detainees and etc.

Noteworthy is the question of what tasks were assigned to the troops during the action in Poland. For example, Commander of the Ukrainian Front Army Commander 1st Rank Semyon Timoshenko noted in his order that "the Polish government of landlords and generals dragged the peoples of Poland into an adventuristic war." Approximately the same was said in the order of the commander of the troops of the Belorussian Front, commander of the 2nd rank Kovalev. They contained an appeal to the population to turn "their weapons against the landlords and capitalists," but said nothing about the fate of the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. raised the question of the reunification of the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. But in subsequent documents, such a task of the troops as saving the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples from the threat of “ruin and beating” from enemies was noted, it was emphasized that Soviet troops were going to Poland not as conquerors, but as liberators of Belarusians, Ukrainians and working people of Poland.

The actions of the Red Army on the territory of Poland lasted 12 days. During this time, the troops advanced 250-300 km and occupied a territory with a total area of ​​​​over 190 thousand square meters. km with a population of more than 12 million people, including more than 6 million Ukrainians and about 3 million Belarusians.